Spectrometers are instruments for measuring and/or recording intensity of light as a function of wavelength (or frequency). Spectrometer systems typically include optical components for producing illumination of the object to be studied when measuring its spectral reflectance or transmittance, and may lack such optical components when measuring spectral self-emission of the object. High spectral resolution and sensitive spectrometers for laboratory use enclose the illuminated object in a closed volume, to avoid illumination from uncontrolled background illumination sources, such as room and daylight illumination. For spectrometers designed for recreational daily or semi-daily usage by novice users (i.e., non-experts), the illuminated object may not be enclosed in such a volume, and therefore special consideration should be given to the method of illumination of the object and the process by which the spectral information of the object is extracted.